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The Shield resumed after a 7 week BBL hiatus and the 5 remaining rounds plus the final will be played with English brand Duke “Special County” cricket balls.

This round saw the depth of state squads tested with Australian players on ODI duty in New Zealand and others resting or training ahead of the tour of India.

South Australia v Western Australia, Glenelg Oval

With boxing taking centre stage at Adelaide Oval, this low scoring tussle was played at Glenelg.

It was notable to see the WA batting line up featured Hilton Cartwright at Number 3 and Micheal Klinger batting at 5. One wonders if the selector/talent manager who pushed for Cartwright to play the Sydney test might also have pushed for this move. Only Greg Chappell would know I feel.

Curiously WA went into this match with just 3 front line bowlers with the balance of overs to be made up by Cartwright, Ashton Turner and Darcy Short. Fortunately for the Warriors they were only required to bowl 93 overs in the match in total. Wicket keeper Sam Whiteman missed for WA with a finger injury meaning Josh Inglis made his WA debut.

South Australia handed a debut to the leading wicket taker in this season’s Matador Cup, fast bowler Cameron Valente. Dan Worrall missed with a back injury, another set back in a frustrating season for him and Joe Mennie has a suspected fractured skull after being hit in the nets bowling for the Sydney Sixers. Alex Ross returend to the middle order.

In their first innings WA were rolled for 201. Chadd Sayers took 5/68 and Kane Richardson 4/55. Josh Inglis top scored with 49* for the Warriors.

Western Australia’s second innings went the same way as the previous two innings, with the Warriors all out for 245. Opener Cameron Bancroft made 56 but as per the first innings it was Chadd Sayers with 4/64 and Kane Richardson with 5/69 who did the damage for SA. This was Kane Richardson’s first 5 wicket haul in his 23rd first class match, he seems to have been around for a long time.

Set 200 for outright victory the Redbacks started well as they made it to 43 with out loss. Then disaster stuck as the middle order crumbled – Ferguson (2) Lehamnn (golden duck) and Alex Ross (0) departed in quick succession to Simon Mackin and the Redbacks slumped to 5/67. Tom Cooper (55 off 64 balls) and keeper Alex Carey (46 off 50 balls) shared a partnership of 99 and had the Redbacks just 34 shy of victory. Darcy Short dismissed Carey sparking another Redback collapse from 5/166 to 9/178. The final pairing of Sayers and David Grant edged SA closer but it wasn’t enough as the Redbacks were all out for 192. Western Australia won by 7 runs. Simon Mackin took 5/78 and David Moody took 4/45. A bowlers match indeed.

Points

Western Australia 7.01

South Australia 1.47

Victoria v New South Wales, MCG

The last cricket match of the summer at the MCG saw Victoria recall Rob Quiney and hand a debut to prolific 18 year old batsmen Will Pucovski. Sam Harper was given the gloves, fast bowler Chris Tremain did not play, replaced by Jake Reed and Evan Gulbis made his first appearance for the Vics in Shield cricket.

New South Wales omitted Nic Maddinson and drafted in Nick Larkin to open. Trent Copeland returned from a nasty finger injury from November and Sean Abbott played his first Shield match of the summer. Will Somerville was also recalled as the spinner.

Victoria batted first and were rumbled for 258. Opener Travis Dean top scored with 67. The pick of the NSW bowlers was Harry Conway with 3/25 off 15 overs.

New South Wales faced no such difficulties in their first innings. Ed Cowan made 212 off 386 balls his 23rd first class century. Peter Neville made 118 and Moises Henriques and Kurtis Patterson chipped in with half centuries. Jon Holland put in a big spell of 42 overs taking 4/155. Interesting to note Victorian skipper Cameron White bowled 20 overs of his seldom seen leg spin.

Victoria’s second innings was as disastrous as it’s first. Opener Travis Dean carried his bat for an unbeaten 79 but otherwise it was a dismal showing. Debutante Will Pucovski did not bat in the second innings due to concussion issues after being struck by the ball will fielding at mid off – the ball kicked off another pitch. An extremely unlucky turn of events for the youngster who has struggled with severe concussion issues in previous seasons.

Shaun Abbot (4/42) and Will Somerville (3/32) were the pick of the Blues bowlers as they belted the Vics by an innings and 77 runs.

Points

New South Wales 8.08

Victoria 0.98

Queensland v Tasmania, Gabba

Queensland recalled the forgotten Peter Forrest to open the batting and reworked their bowling attack to include Mark Steketee, Cameron Gannon and Jason Floros.

Tasmania handed debuts to two Victorians: opening batsmen Jake Hancock and opening bowler Andrew ‘Pez’ Perrin from Fitzroy-Doncaster CC. Alex Doolan returned from his “concussion” which was actually a broken jaw but never mentioned.

Queensland batted first and Peter Forrest had an unhappy return making 4 and 13. Joe Burns made 83 and Marnus Labushagne 61 but it was veteran keeper Chris Hartley who rescued the innings from mediocrity. Coming in at 5/183 Hartley peeled off an unbeaten 102 to guide the Bulls to a position of strength at 9/405 declared. Andrew Perrin and Cameron Stevenson (another Victorian) were the pick of the Tassie bowlers with 3 wickets apiece.

Tasmania’s batting was once again poor. Jake Hancock made a duck on debut and only George Bailey managed a half century. The Tigers were all out for 200. Special mention must be made of Joe Burns who after recently taking his first wicket in the BBL, picked up his first First Class wicket. Jake Doran was the victim and Burns returned the tidy figures of 2 overs, 2 maidens 1/0.

Queensland did a little bit of declaration batting in the second innings with youngster Sam Truloff top scoring with 44 off 33 balls. Andrew Perrin picked up 2 more wickets and the Tigers were chasing 352 for victory.

Regular wickets mean the Tigers weren’t really in the hunt and were 8/114 by midway through session 2 of Day 4. Some late order heroics from number 8, Simon Milenko (68 off 89) and number 10 Cameron Stevenson (42 off 81) caused Quensland some concerns but a run out by Jack Wildermuth ended the partnership and then Wildermuth returned with the ball to dismiss Milenko and the game was over with over an hour to spare.

Queensland won by 133 runs a victory made al the sweeter for Bulls veteran keeper Chris Hartley who claimed a Sheffield Shield record 547th dismissal during the match over taking Darren Berry at the top of the most dismissals list.

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A round of pink ball day night matches to draw to a close the first half of the Shield season. The Shield returns on the 1st of February with the Duke cricket ball.

Western Australia v Queensland, WACA

Western Australia welcomed back Adam Voges and replaced the injured Jason Behrendorf with Josh Nicholas.

Queensland regained their Test players and were glad for the inclusion of Usman Khawaja who managed innings of 157 and 61 to score 218 of Queensland’s 491 runs for the match, an impressive 44% of the Bull’s total runs.

Batting first Queensland made 353 with WA paceman Simon Mackin taking 5/68. Adam Voges took a scarcely believable 5 catches in the innings, I wonder if this is a record for a non-wicket keeper.

In reply the Warriors were in trouble at 7/125 but an even century to Ashton Turner and a well made half century to number 9 Josh Nicholas restored respectability to the scorecard with WA eventually all out for 265. Despite barely being able to make a run in the Futures League, Josh Nicholas has made lower order runs with ease in his 3 Shield matches. His 4 innings have included 3 scores past 40.

With a lead of 80 odd the Bulls were looking to set WA a victory target somewhere north of 350. Simon Mackin had other ideas as he ripped apart the Queensland batting line up taking 6/33 from 16 overs. The Bulls were rolled for 138 in 47 overs, Usman Khawaja made 61. Adam Voges managed just 1 catch in this innings.

This left the Warriors needing 227 for victory and they did it with ease. Jonathan Wells proved his first Shield century was no fluke making 113 not out and along with Adam Voges (78 not out) saw the Warriors to victory with 8 wickets in hand – their first win of the season.

Points

Western Australia 7.35

Queensland 2.39

Tasmania v Victoria, Bellerive Oval

Tasmania handed former Victorian 2nd XI player Jake Hancock a debut at number 3 replacing George Bailey. Victoria welcomed back Peter Handscomb and Dan Christian into the XI as Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell departed for ODI duty.

Tasmania batted first and manged just 205 thanks to half centuries to Queensland imports Dom Michael and Simon Milenko. Jon Holland continued his rich vien of form taking 5/49.

In reply the Bushrangers floundered but were saved by 93 to Dan Christian who batted intelligently with the tail to secure a first innings lead for the Vics. He was last man out with the score on 230. Sam Rainbird did the damage for the Tigers with 4/25 off 10 overs.

Tasmania’s second innings looked to be heading the way of its first at 5/161 but Beau Webster and Simon Milenko had other ideas. Batting at number 8, Milenko recorded his second 50 of the match and Webster pushed on to 122 not out. Tassie declared at 9/387 setting the Bushrangers 361 to win in a day and an hour. Chris Tremain was the Vics best with 4/97. John Hastings succumbed to a leg injury whilst bowling and would play no further part in the game.

Victoria made it through to stumps on Day 3 unscathed but made heavy going of the chase on Day 4 losing set batsmen Marcus Stoinis and Peter Handscomb, both bowled in consecutive overs by Sam Rainbird, to slump to 4/138. Cameron White and Dan Christian put on a vital partnership of 123 but when White and then Sam Harper departed in consecutive deliveries from Jackson Bird the Vics were once again in trouble at 6/261 with 20 odd overs remaining. More wickets fell, the Vics were 8 down and it was unclear if John Hastings would bat. On what turned out to be the last ball before the rain arrived, Jackson Bird rapped Dan Christian on the pads and a huge LBW appeal ensued. The umpire was unmoved, rain halted play and persisted meaning the match was not able to be restarted. The Vics had escaped with a draw.

Dan Christian won the Scott Mason Memorial medal, for his two fine innings. The medal is awarded annually during the Tasmania v Vcitoria Shield match in Hobart in memory of Tasmanian cricket Scott Mason who died in the nets of a heart attack in 2005 aged just 28.

Points

Victoria 2.30

Tasmania 2.03

South Australia v New South Wales, Adelaide Oval

South Australia continue to be without the services of Dan Worrall due to injury. Adam Zampa was replaced by paceman David Grant making his first class debut. Batsmen Sam Raphael came in for Travis Head.

New South Wales coach Trent Johnson said on match eve that captain Moises Henriques would play as a batsmen only and that one of the two fast bowlers Gurinder Sandhu and Charlie Stobo would fill the vacant position created due to Trent Copeland breaking his finger in the previous match.

Moises Henriques did not play, Gurinder Sandhu replaced Copeland for his first match of the summer and somewhat surprisingly Doug Bollinger was made 12th man and Charlie Stobo debuted.

New South Wales batted first with Daniel Hughes and Nic Maddinson making half centuries and Nathan Lyon slogging his way to a career best 61 off 65 balls. The Blues were all out for 269, opening bowlers Chadd Sayers and Kane Richardson took 3 wickets apiece for the Redbacks, wicket keeper Alex Carey took 4 catches.

South Australia fared no better in reply making only 236 thanks mainly to 61 to Sam Raphael. Nathan Lyon and Charlie Stobo took 3 wickets each.

In the NSW second innings Ed Cowan battled hard with a Cowan ton, 45 off 100 balls faced. Whilst Ryan Carters ran out of partners as he registered a red ink Cown ton of his own – 25 not out off 104 balls. The innings contained 5 ducks and a pair of 1s as the the Blues were rolled for 87. Chadd Sayers (5/27 off 19 overs) and Kane Richardson (3/23 off 13 overs) once again did the damage. Alex Carey collected another 4 dismissals.

This left South Australia to chase 121 for victory and they were in all sorts of trouble at 5/49 with Charlie Stobo taking 3 top order wickets. Jake Lehamnn (47 not out) worked with the tail and just as the situation was growing tense at 8 wickets down he belted Nathan Lyon for 6 and finished the game. Charlie Stobo finished with 4 wickets.

Gurinder Sandhu made an inauspicious return for the Blues picking up 1 wicket, bowling keeper Alex Carey. He went for 4 runs an over and was trusted with the least number of overs in the first innings, 14, where as the other bowlers bowled 20, 29 and 23 respectively.

In the second innings Sandhu did not bowl, and captain Peter Neville preferred to turn to debutante Charlie Stobo when he needed a wicket in the final overs.

How Sandhu’s stocks have fallen in the past 2 seasons.

Points

South Australia 7.36

New South Wales 1.69

Points table

Teams

Matches

Won

Lost

Tied

Draw

Points

Victoria

5

4

0

0

1

35.69

South Australia

5

3

2

0

0

29.63

Queensland

5

2

3

0

0

21.48

New South Wales

5

2

2

0

1

20.95

Tasmania

5

1

2

0

2

13.05

Western Australia

5

1

4

0

0

12.69

Leading run scorer

Player

Matches

Runs

Average

100

50

Marcus Harris (Victoria)

5

480

60.00

1

4

Usman Khawaja (Queensland)

3

432

72.00

2

2

Ashton Turner (Western Australia)

4

429

71.50

2

1

Peter Handscomb (New South Wales)

4

410

68.33

1

2

Jake Weatherald (South Australia)

5

391

48.87

1

2

At the other end of the scale are a few notable names:

Callum Ferguson has 157 runs from 8 innings including 101 in one innings.

Glenn Maxwell has managed 129 runs in 5 innings.

Matthew Wade has 113 runs from 4 innings.

To put this in context, South Australia’s number 9 Chadd Sayers has 114 runs for the season.

Leading wicket taker

Player

Matches

Wickets

Average

Economy

Strike rate

Chadd Sayers (South Australia)

5

29

18.58

2.63

42.20

Chris Tremain (Victoria)

5

27

17.55

2.63

40.00

Jon Holland (Victoria)

5

27

18.48

2.69

41.00

Scott Boland (Victoria)

5

19

28.94

3.07

56.40

Jackson Bird (Tasmania)

4

18

26.05

2.92

53.40

Interesting to note a couple of players who changed states in the off-season.

Marcus Harris moved from Western Australia to Victoria and leads all run scorers at the half way point of the season.

Leg spinner Cameron Boyce moved to Tasmania but has found opportunities as hard to come by as he did in Queensland. He has played 2 Shield matches taking 2 wickets at an average of 80 whilst going for 5.27 runs per over.

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Queensland took the game on the road to Far North Queensland and made 4 changes. Leg spinner Mtich Swepson returned at the expense of Jason Floros and Mick Neser replaced Luke Feldman. The batting order was reworked with Charlie Hemphrey recalled to open and Sam Truloff placed at number 4 for his first class debut.

For Western Australia Adam Voges was omitted due to concussion. Mitch Marsh (batting at no 4), Ashton Agar and David Moody all returned from shoulder complaints.

Queensland batted first and managed 422 thanks to a collection of half centuries to Joe Burns, Marnus Labushagne, Jack Wildermuth and Mick Neser.

Queensland were looking for quick runs to set up a decleration but it wasn’t unitl the 6th wicket pair of keeper Chris Hartley (53 off 59 balls) and Mick Nesser that the runs started flowing. Neser hit 53 off 44 balls with 8 fours and 1 six. Queensland drew their innings to a close at 6/252 setting WA a victory target of 355.

Mitch Marsh was the pick of the WA bowlers with 4/38 off 11 overs.

WA were looking well placed in their pursuit of victory at 4/221 but then Michael Klinger fell and the tail subsided rapidly to be all out for 237 and hand Queensland a 97 run victory. Jason Behrendorf could not bat for the Warriors due to leg stress fractures.

Ben Cutting and Mitch Swepson took 3 wickets each for the Bulls and Western Australia remain winless after 4 matches.

Points

Queensland 7.96

Western Australia 1.45

Victoria v South Australia, MCG

Victoria recalled John Hastings in place of Dan Christian, and reorganised their batting order with Glen Maxwell at 4, Aaron Finch at 5 and Cameron White at 6. 19 year old Sam Harper took the gloves for his third match for the Bushrangers.

South Australia welcomed back Joe Mennie and were otherwise unchanged.

Cameron White won the toss and sent South Australia into bat. This decision wasn’t looking great at the end of Day 1 with the Redbacks on 5/360. Travis Head made 130 off 188 balls and Tom Cooper 93.

Day 2 started with the Vics cleaning up the the remaining 5 Redback wickets for the addition of just 45 runs. However they struggled with the bat slumping to 5/137 before Aaron Finch made his first Shield century for Victoria in 5 years and was ably assisted by Sam Harper who made 80. The tail wagged for the Vics with numbers 9, 10, 11 making 20, 30 and 28 respectively. The Bushrangers innings ended at 367, the last 5 wickets had added 230 runs.

South Australia’s second innings fell apart in a 4 over period where they lost a wicket each over – 2 to Marcus Stoinis and 2 to John Holland – to slip from 3/107 to 7/117. The Redbacks were eventually dismissed for 162 a lead of 200. Jon Holland claimed another 4 wicket haul, 4/25 including 3 bowled.

Victoria’s pursuit for 201 for victory was looking shaky at 4/103 but Cameron White steered the Bushrangers home with 40 not out.

Points

Victoria 8.11

South Australia 2.6

Tasmania v New South Wales, Bellerive Oval

For Tasmania, Alex Doolan, was ruled out due to concussion and replaced by Ben McDermott. Sam Rainbird was recalled for Jackson Bird.

New South Wales had a host of changes with Ed Cowan, Peter Neville and Ryan Gibson returning. Off spinner Will Somerville replaced the injured Steve O’Keefe and paceman Harry Conway completed the XI.

George Bailey won the toss and sent NSW in to bat. The Blues made the most of the opportunity running up 5 declared for 495 with Moises Henriques making a century, Peter Neville making 179* and second gamer Ryan Gibson making 65* bringing up his half century with a reverse sweep.

In reply Tasmania were ripped apart by Trent Copeland who took 6/54 as the Tigers were all out for 209. New South Wales decide to bat again and made 1/128 in quick time, nearly 5 an over, to set Tassie an unlikely 415 for victory.

The Tigers slipped to 4/81 in the 33rd over with Copeland dismissing both openers. However Beau Webster (80 off 214 balls) and James Faulkner (100 of 222 balls) showed they were made of sterner stuff batting unbroken for 72 overs to secure Tasmania a draw. It was Faulkner’s maiden Shield century, his second first class century following a hundred in county cricket this winter..

New South Wales will be disappointed not to close out a victory in a game they bossed for large parts. They may rue their decision not to enforce the follow on. To add to the Blues frustration skipper Moises Henriques suffered a side strain whilst bowling. With 8 overs remaining in the days play Henriques offered to the batsmen to call the game off as a draw. They refused and Henriques continued to bowl and injured himself.

Points

New South Wales 2.86

Tasmania 1.37

Points table

Team

Matches

Won

Lost

Tied

Drawn

No result

Points

Victoria

4

4

0

0

0

0

33.39

South Australia

4

2

2

0

0

0

22.27

New South Wales

4

2

1

0

1

0

19.26

Queensland

4

2

2

0

0

0

19.09

Tasmania

4

1

2

0

1

0

11.02

Western Australia

4

0

4

0

0

0

5.34

Leading run scorer

Player

Matches

Innings

Runs

Average

100

50

Marcus Harris (Victoria)

4

7

409

68.16

1

3

George Bailey (Tasmania)

4

8

376

62.66

1

2

Kurtis Patterson (New South Wales)

4

8

375

53.57

1

3

Peter Handscomb (Victoria)

3

4

363

90.75

1

2

Travis Head (South Australia)

4

6

362

60.33

1

2

Tom Cooper (South Australia)

4

6

352

58.66

1

2

Leading wicket taker

Player

Matches

Innings

Wickets

Average

Economy

Chris Tremain (Victoria)

4

8

21

15.95

2.53

Chadd Sayers (South Australia)

4

8

21

21.23

2.79

Jon Holland (Victoria)

4

8

20

18.9

2.8

Scott Boland (Victoria)

4

8

17

24.94

3.05

Ashton Agar (Western Australia)

3

6

16

23.87

3.1

Jason Behrendorff (Western Australia)

4

7

14

23.14

2.92

Futures League

Wollongong hosted the NSW v ACT match. Pat Cummins was in action again bowling 30 overs across the two innings as NSW slumped to defeat.

Peter Forrest and keeper Jimmy Peirson made centuries as Queensland defeated South Australia at AB Field. Harry Neilsen made a hundred for South Australia.

Western Australia sent Cameron Bancroft back to the 2nd XI for the first innings of this match, he made. Tasmania won thanks to 99 to Tim Paine and 7 wickets to former Fitzroy-Doncaster cricketer, Andrew Perrin.